First off, as I've written before, Artis Gilmore has gotten the shaft, but that's for another day. The pressing question is: Who would you pick?

Put me down for Barkley, AD, and Dominique. I honestly don't know enough about Big-10 basketball to determine if Keady is worthy, although a college coach who never won a national title seems to be an odd consideration. Heck, Frank Furtado was a trainer for 5,000 years, does that mean he gets a nomination as well?

I could be convinced about Dumars as well. A great player, a great GM, put it together and he's a worthy candidate. Plus, he's like a rich man's Nate McMillan, so he's got that going for him. Likewise, Walker was a consistently very good player, making a half-dozen all-star teams. Still, his numbers are on the fringe, and I doubt he gets in unless the voters are just tired of writing 'no' next to his name.

Count me down for Sir Charles, Joe D., and Nique. How about Don Nelson, he's won a million games, and if Lenny Wilkens can get in, then how about Don? On the other hand, he's friends with Mark Cuban so there's a definite knock against him.

Add the Sonics defense this year into the Hall, as John Hollinger of ESPN reports the Sonics defense is the worst defense ever in the NBA. http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&id=2391674

For those without insider, I reproduce the article for you.

It wasn't supposed to be like this in Seattle. Coming off a 52-win season that saw the SuperSonics give the eventual champion Spurs all the Texans could handle in the second round, the Sonics were looking forward to continuing their winning ways in 2005-06.

Yes, they were a poor defensive team, but they could score in bunches. Thanks to their potent 3-point shooting and ferocious offensive rebounding, the 2004-05 Sonics had the NBA's third-most efficient offense. Thus, even with a defense that ranked a mere 25th out of the league's 30 teams in defensive efficiency (my measure of a team's points allowed per 100 opponent possessions), the Sonics scored enough to win on most nights.

This year, that equation changed in a major way. The Sonics still had the great offense. Through Wednesday's games, the Sonics ranked fourth in the NBA in offensive efficiency and were just a hair behind Detroit for third, which would be a repeat of last year's performance.

Defensively, however, things went from bad to worse. Or worst, I should say. Not as in "worst in the NBA," although that certainly applies. No, I mean worst as in worst defense ever.

You heard me.

Worst.

Defense.

Ever.

In the 33 years since the NBA has been tracking turnovers (thus making it possible to track teams on a per-possession basis), none has ever been as bad, relative to the league, as this year's Sonics. Nobody has even been close to this bad. Seattle's 112.4 defensive efficiency mark is more than nine points worse than the league average of 103.2.

The nearest any team has come to the Sonics' defensive ineptitude came in the 1998-99 season, when both the Clippers and Nuggets set new standards of ineptitude. The Clips were 7.8 points worse than the league norm, while the Nuggets were 7.6 worse. (chart goes here)But the Clippers' mark was set in a 50-game season, thanks to the 1998-99 lockout. In an 82-game NBA season, the all-time worst belongs to the 1992-93 Dallas Mavericks, who were 7.5 points worse than the league norm. So the Sonics aren't just breaking the 82-game record here, they're destroying it by more than 20 percent. Basically, they're the Wilt Chamberlains of bad defense.

Not only are the Sonics the worst ever, they've managed to be the worst under two different coaches. Taking top honors is Bob Weiss, who took the reins for the first 30 games and presided over a traveshamockery of a defense. Through 30 games, Seattle's defensive efficiency mark stood at 112.7, while the league average was 102.4 -- putting the Sonics a whopping 10.3 points worse than the league.

As the next chart shows, Seattle was awful under Weiss in three very important categories.

First and foremost was field-goal percentage defense, with opponents hitting at nearly a 50 percent clip. But looking at only field-goal percentage actually minimized Seattle's problems. The Sonics also fouled with wild abandon and gave up a ton of 3-pointers, so their opponents' true shooting percentage (what their percentage would be if we adjusted for free throws and 3-pointers) was an exorbitant 59.0 percent, six points worse than the league average.

In fact, the difference between Seattle and the next-worst team in that stretch (Toronto) was nearly as great as the difference between Toronto and the league average. In plain English, that means they were twice as bad as even the next-worst team.(another chart)Under new coach Bob Hill, things have improved a bit.

Under Hill, the numbers show Seattle still would be the worst defense ever, but not far and away the worst. While scoring around the league has gone up over the past 40 games to an average efficiency of 103.8, Seattle's mark improved to 112.2 in 40 games under Hill. So the difference of only 8.4 points, while still terrible, is a two-point improvement over Weiss. (If you're wondering, it's perfectly normal for the league average in offensive/defensive efficiency -- i.e. scoring -- to rise as the season goes on.)

Looking at some of the other metrics (see chart), it's easy to see how the Sonics have improved. First, they've stopped fouling so much. Seattle's ratio of opponent free-throw attempts to field-goal attempts was the worst in the league under Weiss, but is slightly below the league average in the Hill era. Mad hackers such as Reggie Evans and Danny Fortson have played very little under Hill, creating much of the drop. Seattle also has tightened up its field-goal defense. Its opponents are hitting at only a 48.7 percent clip under Hill, even though percentages around the league rose during that time.

As a result, look at what's happened to their opponents' TS percentage -- it's almost respectable now. The Sonics have cut the distance between themselves and the league average in half under Hill, the main reason for the team's overall two-point improvement in defensive efficiency relative to the league.

There's reason to think those numbers will improve further. At the trade deadline, Seattle traded two of its worst defensive players, forward Vladimir Radmanovic and guard Ronald Murray, as well as Evans, and got a major upgrade in Earl Watson. He's one of the best defensive guards in basketball, and in the few minutes he's played thus far as a Sonic, Seattle's defensive numbers have improved sharply. Additionally, rookie center Johan Petro and soph Robert Swift (a rookie in terms of experience, if not technically) will never be worse than they were at the start of this season.

That said, those numbers aren't going to improve enough for Seattle to avoid an infamous spot in history. Over its final 12 games, Seattle would have to defend at or better than the league average in order to surpass the Clippers and be only the second-worst defensive team. To avoid being the worst in an 82-game season, they'd have to be about 2.4 points better than the average -- on par with a team like New Jersey or Chicago. That's a serious stretch considering it requires a heroic effort from this team just to hold opponents under 95 points -- something they've done only once since the All-Star break.

The Sonics are so good offensively that if the defense is merely bad, as in 2004-05, they're a playoff team. And it's easy to say they can't get any worse than they were this year. But looking ahead, one wonders if the defense can pass muster next season even with Watson, because it appears Seattle will be depending on most of the same players. Since Seattle's key offensive players -- Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, Chris Wilcox and Luke Ridnour -- are also among its worst defensive players, it's hard to see how they can improve the defense substantially without negating the offensive part of the equation.

Regardless of Seattle's next steps, the book already has been written on this season. Everybody knows this is a poor defensive team, but what many did not know was the scale of the problem. So even though it was a forgettable year in Seattle, tip your hat to these Sonics and keep them in your fond memories. Because when it comes to bad defense, nobody's ever done it better.

Thanks for the link, EJ. We always appreciate giving us something for nothing. Hollinger is Mr. Stat, but even a 7th-grade algebra teacher could see the Sonics are horrific on defense. Hollinger just explains it better.

Now that you've made us a branch of ESPN Insider, can you hook up an illegal satellite at my house so's I can watch the porn?

WOW.Artis is hip level with that dudes head! Even though the perspective adds a couple of inches it doesn't matter because if you take the basket away and the crowd, he is still HIP LEVEL WITH HIS HEAD!!! I am pretty sure that is about as high as he can jump too!! Insane. Also, Artis might be the happiest person to ever block a shot, smiling like he just won the lottery. Weird how everyone in the crowd was socially repressed. No one is standing up or cheering or excited or black or... Ahhh... The good ol' fifties. Repression, depression, discrimination and suppression, every "sion" there is. Was. IS. Is/was. Whatever. Oh! Just found someone standing half way up! Ol'Timer in grey suit with black glasses- that guy was a pioneer for modern fanaticism- a trail blazer, a risk taker, innovator... the first groupie.

I just read that Dumars, Dominique, and the UConn girls' coach are in. Funny, but the espn story didn't mention Sir Charles. I think we can assume he made it, unless the Hall has instituted a weight clause.

I guess Sampson is being considered because of his college/pro career, not solely because of his pro career, which wasn't all that Hall-worthy. This is a side topic, but I think the NBA needs to create its own Hall. This nonsense of Dominique having to wait a year while a bunch of Spanish assistant coaches get awarded is nonsense. Plus, it's confusing when considering people like Sampson; are years of great play at Virginia worth more than 15 years of great play by the A-Train in the pros? Apparently, yes.

We've set up at new website to promote Artis for the Hall of Fame. Enough is enough. I'm tired of image and popularity being the edge to get into the Hall.

I've never met Artis, but I've heard from multiple sources that he's a great guy and the numbers speak for themselves. Maybe if he would have been a chest-thumpin', trash-talker he'd be in. Or maybe if he had played in NYC or LA.

But the numbers alone speak for themselves. Let's face it, there is only a short list of guys we'd rather have patroling the paint in their prime than Artis.

Furthermore, it's time that defense and rebounding were extolled for the outstanding basketball virtues that they are. Artis could certainly score, but here's a prime case where the total stat package should be looked at closely.

So stop by our blogsite and give some props if you want to help build the support for Artis in the Hall.